A useful local SEO report should show whether the right customers are finding your business and making worthwhile enquiries. For a Rochdale business, ask for reporting that connects relevant searches and service pages with calls, forms and booked conversations. Keep the work completed beside the results so you can discuss what to do next.
Start by agreeing what counts as a useful enquiry. A request for a service you sell within your working area belongs in that discussion; an unrelated product question does not. Ask your supplier to separate visibility from enquiries rather than presenting a larger traffic total as the answer to both questions.
Agree the customers and services you want
Write down the services you want to grow, the areas you cover and the customers you can realistically help. Give your supplier examples of good enquiries and unsuitable ones. Ask them to build the review around that brief, rather than selecting whichever keyword happens to have improved most recently.
Keep existing customers searching for your name separate from people discovering your business through a service search. Request both views, with the filtering explained. For a business serving Rochdale and nearby towns, agree how those places will be reviewed without assuming that a national traffic increase means more local work.
Read Search Console figures together
Google Search Console distinguishes impressions, when someone sees a link, from clicks through to your website. Its click-through rate compares clicks with impressions.[1] Ask for those figures together for the service pages and searches you agreed to track. Request a short explanation when exposure increases but visits do not.
Treat average position as context, not a fixed place on everyone’s screen. Google explains that it averages position across impressions.[1] Ask your supplier to show the underlying query and page, then discuss whether the page actually answers that search. Do not approve a new page simply because a ranking chart has a red arrow beside it.
Keep Maps activity separate from website results
Request a separate view of Google Business Profile performance. Google’s profile reporting includes searches and interactions, and its performance data can include both organic results and Google Ads.[2] Ask which activities and channels the report includes before comparing its totals with website figures. Label paid activity clearly wherever it appears.
Be particularly careful with the word “calls”. Google defines this profile metric as clicks on the call button, not a count of completed conversations.[2] Compare it with your own enquiry record without expecting an exact match. Ask your supplier to state what each number measures instead of labelling every interaction as a new lead.
Check what happened after the visit
Agree a simple enquiry record that staff can maintain. Record the date, service requested, whether the enquiry was suitable and its outcome. Add the source when you genuinely know it. Allow an unknown category rather than asking the receptionist to guess how every caller first found the business.
Ask whoever manages your website to demonstrate the enquiry journey on a phone and a computer. Submit an agreed test, confirm it reaches the right inbox and check how it appears in reporting. Mark the test clearly so it is not counted as a prospect. Repeat the check after changes to the form or its destination.
Review periods and completed work fairly
Ask for clearly labelled date ranges and comparisons using the same definitions. Keep notes about holidays, closures, advertising and website changes beside the figures. If the enquiry log started halfway through the period, say so. Request a longer view before drawing conclusions from a handful of enquiries or a single unusual week.
Have the supplier identify the work completed, the pages affected and the reason for doing it. Then ask what evidence would support continuing, changing or stopping that work. Keep proposed actions specific enough to check at the next review. “Improve SEO” is not a useful action; reviewing a named service page against its actual search queries is.
Take one report to your next conversation
Bring your latest report and a small sample of genuine enquiries to the next review. Ask the supplier to explain one relevant search, the page it reaches and what happens when someone contacts you. Agree the next improvement, its owner and how you will check it. Keep any uncertainty visible in the meeting notes.
BMT’s local SEO service covers local search visibility and Google Business Profile support. Our wider SEO service includes reporting on rankings, traffic, enquiries and completed work.[3][4] If your current report stops at rankings, bring it to a discussion with BMT about the questions it leaves unanswered. Start with the report you already have rather than buying another dashboard.
Sources
[1] Google Search Console: impressions, position and clicks